Lea Valley Group was founded as a result of 3 new members arriving at the Herts local group meeting at The Comet Hotel, Hatfield and finding themselves alone in the bar. Following an immediate deputation and discussion with the TR Register President, the Herts Group was relaunched as the Lea Valley Group and an inaugural meeting held at the Station Hotel, Knebworth, Hertfordshire on 4th January, 1973, attended by 33 members from Herts, Beds and surrounding areas.
Meetings continued to be held at the Station Hotel for several years before moving to various locations within the area, currently being held at The Cock Inn, Broom.
The group has been extremely fortunate in having had unusual continuity of leadership, with few Group Leaders since its formation. The founder and first Group Leader was Paul Howell followed by Ian White, Eddie Holden, Phil Titchner, Stephen Doe, Jon Marshall (who was also the TR4/4A Registrar for 30 years), Julian Hensman, Pierre Miles and currently Phil Sanford. There are approximately 120 TR Register members within our area, of whom about 30% regularly attend our events throughout the year.
Lea Valley has always been a very active group, organising many shows and marque days and winning several awards for best stand at major shows. Several overseas trips have been organised and we have participated in a number of TR international events in Europe. Every month, we have Sunday lunchtime meetings and during the summer, we have additional evening meetings. Obviously, the cars are an important element of the meetings but some are of a purely social nature and are often combined with other local groups.
We welcome members and cars of all standards and models and are happy to advise and help with maintenance and restoration projects.
The LVG newsletter 'TRunnion' is produced regularly and should give you a good idea of the benefits of local group membership, including:
Chance to meet other TR enthusiasts
Attend shows with the Group
Share help and advice on TR matters
Driving and social events
In addition to the regular newsletter, interim updates are emailed to members, posted on the website and in the TR Group Notice Board area of the TR Register Forum. We have also moved into the 21st century and established our own page on Facebook and have a growing WhatsApp Group.
We hope to see you, with or without your car, at a local meeting or event soon - do come along, join in and get involved. We would welcome any suggestions for future activities - visits to events, places of interest and race meetings (possibly with group runs), quizzes, barbecues, overseas trips, etc.
If you are in our area why not come and meet us? Let's try to ensure that LVG remains in good health as we enter our second half century since formation.
To help us contact you, please send an email with the title 'Lea Valley TR Group' to
Phil Sanford at
or to receive 'TRunnion' free of charge by email, contact
Chris Glasbey at
3rd Sunday of the month, 12pm:The Cock Inn, 23 High Street, Broom,Biggleswade, SG18 9NA.
